Reports show decrease in on-campus crime

Even with the police situation and reported assault on campus last month, the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus has become an increasingly safe place.

An examination of the 2017-2018 Annual Security Report, which includes data from both Main Campus and Fairlane Center Campus, shows crime is down in nearly every category.

UM-Dearborn Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety Kevin Williams says the credit belongs to the campus police force.

“Our visibility is high. Take a look when you are on campus. It seems like we are everywhere,” Williams said. “This has a direct impact on convincing undesirable people not to come onto or remain on campus.”

The outlying area of criminal activity are incidents of hate crimes, of which there was only one in 2016. There were no hate crimes reported for 2014 or 2015.

Aggravated assaults also fell from four reported incidents in 2015 to no aggravated assaults reported in 2016.

Car thefts are down dramatically. There were nine cars stolen on campus in 2015 and only one car theft reported in 2016.

In terms of rape and sexual assaults, there were two rapes and one incident of fondling in 2015. Those numbers fell to zero rapes and one fondling case reported in 2016.

According to Chief Williams, vigilance is the key to a safe campus.

“We encourage our entire community to share what they see if anything of concern is noticed.